The Blackside Collection

This collection contains materials created by Henry Hampton and his documentary production company Blackside Inc., for their numerous films from until it's last production in 2002. Hampton was the company's president and founded it in Boston in 1968.

The 58,000-plus items in the Henry Hampton Collection include film, video, photos, and other materials created and gathered in the various stages of the production process for his programs. It also includes the companies business records, internal book and video libraries which they used for reference, Hampton's personal papers, as well as artifacts and ephemeral materials from the company. The collection also contains materials from the Civil Rights Project, Inc., a non-profit company that was created by Hampton to act as the non-profit counterpart to his commercial production company. 

Blackside production materials have been organized by the two distict periods of the company's production activities. The later period, begining with their work on the Eyes on the Prize series represents the bulk of the collection and contains the widest variety of formats and documentation. There are several gaps in the materials that document Blackside's earlier programs, prior to working with the PBS system.

The collection was obtained from the Civil Rights Project, Inc. in 2001 and subsequent materials were obtained from Blackside, Inc. in 2002 and 2003.

Washington University Libraries will preserve and promote the Henry Hampton Collection for educational and scholarly use by students, faculty, and filmmakers as well as by institutions and individuals in the surrounding community and beyond.